Reported to work and were gathered up by our training supervisor, Roddy. He gave us all radios so we could hear him as we toured the plant and went through Safety School. We also met our other trainers, we have been assigned to Albertha, she is patient, caring and awesome to work with. This day was a lot of standing around and listening, although we were tested on maneuvering a pallet jack, pushing carts the correct way and lifting and moving pallets. We were given helpful hint cards to hang on our ID badge lanyards and got work gloves from the dispensing machine. They provide gloves, safety vests, earplugs and box knives for us to use. Our legs were sore from standing on the concrete, it will be better when we are moving around. This was just a half day, we had our break at 9:00 am and checked out at 11:30 am. Home for lunch, a nap and rest for tomorrow.
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| Tuesday morning view from our front window at the campsite |
Thursday - Here we go. I'm wearing capris today and a light t-shirt, our experience yesterday and the veterans of the group have helped us realize it can be warm inside and today we will be working. We check in and gather for what they call "stand up". There are numbers on the floor you line up on so they can get a head count, then you can move and do stretching exercises while they make the morning announcements. On the wall there is a power point display of the area everyone is assigned to. We, being trainees, are all assigned to one area and wait today for our trainers to give us instruction.
Then we are lead to the stowing area and shown how to stow the product. "Stowers: the team that safely shelves millions of items that come through each Amazon facility."Amazon has a lot of acronyms, it will take some time to learn them all. Albertha takes 5 of us to train, it is great working with her. After some instruction, she turns us loose with each of us having a cart full of product to stow. We each have a scanner and have to remember how to scan the cart, our badge to get checked in, then scan each items barcode and stow it in a bin. Then the bin is scanned, so the computer system knows the product is available to sell and the "picker" knows where to find the product when it needs to be shipped out. A lot of steps to remember, but it is good to be working and feeling productive.
The products we stowed are interesting. Everything from toys, to books, to hunting equipment, caps, photo albums - anything you find on Amazon that you can buy is on the shelves here. Nothing real heavy for us today, but we had a quantity of some items that we had to find a cubby to put them in. Today, we were given our orange reflective vests to wear.
The morning flew by and then it was 9:00 break time. After break we had a short skill/rule testing for stowing and then back to our carts and aisles. The rest of the morning went quickly, they came around and told us it was time to go home. So we checked out and headed home. Stopped at Subway for a sandwich, then home to eat and nap time again. Gary strolled around the campground and talked to some of the other campers/Amazon workers. Had supper, showers (we are showering at night, so we can sleep later in the morning) and to bed.
Here is a recent article from Motorhome magazine with a couple pictures. The first picture is of the stand up gathering when we check in every morning, the second picture is of receiving (I think) and the third picture shows stowing.
www.motorhome.com/motorhome-travel/lifestyle/amazon-Camperforce-your-next-adventure#.Uk3uB5wW-kM.gmail
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